The puzzle of Neanderthals

Ros in jumperCall me inquisitive if you like, but I admit to a long-standing, burning curiosity about the Neanderthal people. That prolific, brilliant author, Isaac Asimov, once wrote a novel about modern humans transporting a young Neanderthal child to the modern world to try to find out what had happened to them. I read his novel eagerly but, like him and like everyone else, I cannot explain with any certainty what could have caused these highly adapted, community-minded people to die out, leaving us as the only species of humans on the planet.

(Incidentally, the novel by Asimov was called “Child of Time” and it was originally a short story called “The Ugly Little Boy”. That last title is not very complimentary to how Neanderthals might have looked, but you get the idea.)

An artist's rendition of life on earth 60,000 years ago, showing a Neanderthal family on the frozen tundra of northern Europe - provided by Wikipedia Commons (public domain image)
An artist’s rendition of life on earth 60,000 years ago, showing a Neanderthal family on the frozen tundra of northern Europe – provided by Wikipedia Commons (public domain image)

It seems to me that the Neanderthals were tantalizingly similar to us, yet mysteriously different as well. They didn’t farm, but then neither did we at that time in our past. They didn’t create rock art (at least to the best of our knowledge). Yet they buried their dead and looked after their old and infirm.  In some respects one would think they would have been more likely to survive than we were. For instance, they were better adapted than Homo sapiens to a frozen world. They survived thousands of years of Ice Age. Their bones were far stronger than ours. Our bones are finer, more fragile, much more breakable. They would have won a wrestling contest with us easily.

So why did they, around 35000 years ago, become extinct?

Image from wpclipart.com

Here’s your chance to plumb the depths of this mystery and go back to the time before homo sapiens were the only human beings on the planet. Have a look at each link below to view some fascinating speculations about Neanderthals:

Of course, many of these ideas are theory rather than fact.

Now, write down what you think. You might have a theory, a question or a perceptive comment to make on the life and the fate of the Neanderthals. Don’t forget that if you find a fascinating site or interesting piece of information you can leave a comment with the details to inspire and interest others (including your inquisitive teacher).

Kind regards,

Ms Green.

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13 Replies to “The puzzle of Neanderthals”

  1. I have enjoyed my first week of High School at Box Hill. I really enjoyed the classes and am looking forward to Sport!!
    I think that the Neanderthals were an amazing species and that they were very smart. They were stong and could survive harsh weather.

  2. My first week of school has been great. It has been ridunkulously hard and fun. I’m looking towards sport. Everyone has been really nice.
    I think the neanderthals died out because they went hunting too much and didn’t have many children and many of them could have been killed while hunting.

  3. Neanderthals are almost the same as us… so why did they die out so quickly? they could probably talk, just like us. they could build fires, bury their dead and hunt, just like us

  4. Neanderthals are a mystery, because nobody really knows what happened. But we probably survived because we are more awesome!!!

  5. My first week of school has been great even though there were a few mishaps with the lockers and finding my way around. Everyones really friendly and I’m already finding it heaps more challenging the primary school which in the long run I’m sure will turn out to be a good thing.

    A possibilty is that a disease affecting only neanderthols wiped them out though there should have been some sort of evidence of this.

  6. I wish I could have a time machine so I could go back in time to see the Neanderthals acted and lived. It’s a pitty that the Neanderthals died.

  7. I think that the Neanderthals died out because they got too good for themselves and started killing eachother for Domminance

  8. Actually, Ango and Bob, the evidence doesn’t appear to support that theory. It seems that large-scale battles and wars were waged only with the development of large civilisations. As far as I know, there is no evidence of major carnage in the archaeological records from the time when the Neanderthals became extinct to support the idea that the Neanderthals waged war in any significant way, either on homo sapiens or amongst themselves. Remember, they lived in small nomadic bands, as did homo sapiens 40,000 years ago. There might have been skirmishes, perhaps, but one wouldn’t expect minor clashes to wipe out a whole species. It seems that the technology for war and the motivation to wage it came with the development of cities and large settlements; and that homo sapiens developed, along with their talents for farming, tool-making and art, a proclivity for war.

    Kind regards,
    Ms Green.

  9. hello Ms. Green,
    I am trying to leave my first response on your blog!!!
    Regards
    mrs. Cohen

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